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EVENTS

A Very Serious Non-Scientific Poll

I am seriously looking for your input on this; I assure you it is not a trick question, but what I think to be a very simple and straightforward one. That said, I am not doing this as a multiple-choice poll, but open-ended, for reasons which I will reveal at a later date. Please do leave your answer in the comments, even if others have already answered (and please do your best not to be influenced by earlier answers, whether they agree or disagree with yours). And despite this being the internet, I am asking for your honest first answer (even if it is “I don’t know”). Please do not google, bing, or otherwise search–I’m not looking for their answer, I’m looking for yours.

I don’t know if he was the first, or the only, but I distinctly remember hearing it sung by Kermit the Frog. (There may have been backup from other Muppets, but Kermit was definitely the main singer.) And, no, I don’t remember the voice actor who would actually have been singing it. Was Kermit voiced by Jim Henson?

And, again, not 100% sure, but I’m pretty positive it was in the Muppet Movie that I heard it.

Kevin@10, Doug Henning WAS a magician. He died of liver cancer in 2000. I saw him perform live several times before he left Winnipeg. What a pity he got mixed up in TM bullshit and didn’t seek proper medical care when he needed it.

Lots and lots of people have sung “Rainbow Connection.” As others have pointed out, it was premiered by Jim Henson as Kermit the Frog in The Muppet Movie.

If you want to know who was the first to sing “Rainbow Connection,” then either Paul Williams or Kenneth Ascher, who are co-credited with music and lyrics. But this is easily accessible information, so I can’t fathom your purpose in asking.

Despite your assurances, I suspect this is a trick question of some sort, because you can Google like the rest of us.

[edit–I did not need to google, of course; I knew the answer(s). I was not after what the answer is, but after what people say the answer is. That’s why it was a poll, not a question.–DC]

Unless you have reason to believe that the easily accessible information is wrong, in which case I’m going to guess Joe Raposo.

Kermit the Frog and/or Jim Henson. Dunno if the song was original or not, but that’s who (to me) “sings it”, and while I know Henson was Kermit, I really just think of the Muppet when I imagine the song.

No trick question? What are you up to, then…? Tell me and I’ll buy you a bottle of one of the finest wines of Idaho!

So now I cheated and looked at everyone else’s responses – I assumed Kermit the Frog wasn’t a choice, for some reason! I have a feeling that Kenny Loggins was a cover, too, and that I don’t know the original singer.

Strictly speaking, I don’t know for sure. My immediate association is Kermit the Frog of The Muppets, so that would mean I think Jim Henson sang it.

That’s if you mean “who sang it first”. If you want a list of people who have sung the song at some point in time, then definitely Jim Henson, bunches of other people, and also a former classmate of mine.

@ Kevin @ 10: Henning was a magician, but he later went insane and then even later went into Canadian politics (while still nuts). His Natural Law Party wanted to replace the military with levitating transcendental meditators.

I think Matthew @#155 has it. My very first thought was Kermit, but then my mind revolted and said, “Kermit isn’t REAL–it was Jim Henson!” But then I wondered what the definition of real is if it excludes a character like Kermit. I might be confused all day.

I’m too late to vote, but I wanted to thank Alethea H. Claw – it bugs me when people say “Jimmy Stewart said” or whatever. I know why they do it, but the odds that Stewart (for example) subscribed to everything his characters said are vanishingly small…

Errr? Well, the song by that name I recognize was a number from the original Muppet Movie. The main singer for the opening version was Kermit T. Frog, voiced by Jim Henson, though some of the other Muppets also sang in the reprise – I’d guess Frank Oz was at least one of the voices. There probably are others in the Henson team who were singing in the reprise, but those are the only two muppeteers I recall by name.

As I suspect a trick question, I’d note it’s been sung by others since; there might possibly be another unrelated song by that name; and I’m not 100% sure it was original to the Muppet Movie, either.